Datarails, the FP&A solution for Excel users, has enlisted the help of AI to reveal the most common profile of a successful CFO.
The process saw AI software ingest the corporate headshots of CFOs in the Fortune 500 to learn the most common physical traits of a top finance chief. The AI also factored in characteristics listed in core job requirements ‒ such as analytical skills, drive and interpersonal skills ‒in a bid to manufacture an image of the ideal CFO for a listed company in the US.
The result created a male and female CFO which have been brought to life using stable diffusion and machine learning.
As a byproduct the AI also revealed the “average color value” of an enterprise CFOs' choice of clothing. For female CFOs their most common power color is hex code '655152' (a dark brown), while for male CFOs it is hex code “2d2f37” (dark navy).
Unsurprisingly the AI-generated ideal finance chiefs reflects the traits of largely white CFOs who comprise the majority of Finance chiefs in the Fortune 500. In 2022 16% of CFOs are women, while 10.9% of CFOs are racially or ethnically diverse (Crist Kolder’s Volatility Report 2022), but it also reflects intrinsic bias in AI models. The deep problem of racial and gender bias in AI has been underscored by research from AI firm Hugging Face - including a former ethics researcher at Google - that shows that AI-image generators continue to depict racial and gender biases in their outputs.
Datarails created the most common ‘s CFO as it marks the launch of FP&A Genius, "the ChatGPT" for the Office of the CFO giving companies unprecedented instant insights about budgets, forecasts, variance, and spend.
FP&A Genius provides generative AI answers based on complete and consolidated finance data from across a company. The chat function allows executives to quickly answer questions such as 'How did revenue compare 2022 vs 2021?', 'What will happen to the bottom line if inflation is 2x the rate today?' and 'How will results be impacted if revenue grows by 10% next year?
